The Same Person Inside the Storm

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction” (2 Corinthians 1:3–4, ESV).

Then Paul tells the Corinthians about the affliction behind it:

“For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself” (2 Corinthians 1:8, ESV).

Paul describes the weight of the affliction in Asia without identifying it. We all want to carry the confidence that everything is going to be ok during moments of absolute uncertainty. I’ve had those seasons in my family, and in my experiences. I’ve always tried to portray this image that it’s all going to be ok. It’s not always ok. In the most recent season, health concerns were ever present. In many ways there seemed to be no real clarity on what the issue was. It impacted our daily lives, our jobs, and our walk as well. I think about what I’ve been through, and I read this passage. Even so, I do not think they are the same thing. But the power of the text gives us a chance to be connected to those, without specificity, who have suffered as is being described here. The beauty of this is that it is not clear what it was. We only have what it was like, and that’s a blessing from God. We can fill our names into that description.

Later in the same letter he does it again. He says “a thorn was given me in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7, ESV). He doesn’t disclose the thorn, or the details of the despair, only what they did to him. We do not need to identify Paul’s affliction to learn from his dependence on God.

“Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:9, ESV).

God is named by what He does. He raises the dead. Paul says plainly where that hope rests: “he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus” (2 Corinthians 4:14, ESV). The resurrection is still ahead of us, but the hope it gives can comfort us now. We can depend on God without knowing how this particular affliction will end.

Part of what we miss is this. To handle these circumstances in a godly manner, we must not be so concerned for ourselves that we forget who was concerned for all. I feel this strongly. Paul says it more sharply: Christ died for all, “that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Corinthians 5:15, ESV). Suffering does not suspend that. But also, we need to be careful not to assume God has placed us in harm’s way because of something we have done. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. Physical safety and recovery are not always promised. Where Paul went is exactly where we should go.

“He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many” (2 Corinthians 1:10–11, ESV). In our most challenging moments in life the tendency is to fix it on our own. Who can we trust in these moments? Who is the one leading us where we are going? We often need to set down our self-willed assessment and do what Paul did. Paul set his hope on God and asked the saints to help him by prayer. My family needed to do the same. We all need to do the same.

We had prayers from the Church that came to us and God healed us according to His will. We followed Paul’s example. Not every season ends that way, and the text does not promise that it will. The hope set on God holds either way.

“For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you” (2 Corinthians 1:12, ESV). Paul is defending how he had dealt with them. Some read his changed travel plans as the mark of a man who says yes and no at once (1:15–17). His answer is a clear conscience. By the grace of God, his conduct toward them had been sincere, even under pressure.

Notice how the circumstances were handled. The two ways a life can run. Earthly wisdom or the grace of God. We must look beyond the human outcome and focus on the spiritual outcome. In chapter 12 Paul asks three times for the thorn to be taken away. I carry pain from my past. I asked God to remove it, and He hasn’t. Paul heard this answer: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9, ESV).

Grace does not mean looking unaffected. Paul told the Corinthians he despaired. His grace sustains us in weakness. We are called to remain faithful while we carry what has not been removed. We need to be the same person inside the storm as we are outside of it. That’s living inside the grace He gives. The grace He gives demands faithful obedience for us to be called living.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Developed with the assistance of AI writing tools, under the author’s full theological review and final editorial control.

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